Internet Radio Off Following Rates Ruling

In the week following the rates ruling by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel that many Webcasters say will kill Internet radio if adopted, Internet radio listening dipped for the second consecutive week. Although slight at 1 percent for the week of Feb. 18 and 4 percent in the previous week, the weeks' results reverse a consistent upward trend in Internet radio listening. The company had no explanation for the dip. But total time spent listening, the gauge that MeasureCast uses in its ratings service, has increased 123 percent since Jan. 1, according to the company. The top network for the last week of February was WARP Radio Network, while the top Webcaster was JazzFM. It was the fifth week this year that the British streamer held the No.1 spot. Also, Entercom Communications Corp. is the latest streaming radio network to subscribe to the MeasureCast Streaming Audience Measurement Service.